Tom Petty Is A Wise, Wise Man

Day 2 of Zach Parise Watch leaves Minnesota (and every other team in the NHL) waiting for their gun him to sign after an announcement that whipped up everyone into a frenzy turned out to be a non-decision. Instead, Parise will fly home from his agent's headquarters in Toronto to discuss things with his family.

(Flights from Toronto to MSP land at 8:31 and 9:27 p.m. CT tonight. Not that it means anything)

The 27 year-old forward, meanwhile, has made progress.

Zach Parise via text: "All I can say is we made a lot of progress and we are closer today than yesterday." #mnwild #nhl
— Michael Russo (@Russostrib) July 2, 2012

With this information and tons of speculations, any one of a half-dozen can make a good claim to being the front-runners. For Wild fans, it would be coming to Minnesota to make a decision may lead to the hometown player making an announcement in the State of Hockey.

For Penguins fans, the longer the wait may mean that Pairse is considering leaving his New Jersey Devils for their Atlantic Division rivals. For the Flyers/Blackhawks/any number of mystery teams, passing Day 2 may mean that Zach saw an offer which he couldn't refuse.

And for New Jersey, Parise taking his time to make a decision could mean he hasn't been impressed with any outside offer.

Of course, the same can be interpreted that the longer time goes on, the less chance (Team X) has - for Minnesota, that would be the money they are rumored to be spending is less tantalizing - but that's the nature of waiting. And it's the hardest part.